Three battle for Scots union jobs
15 January 2001
Three battle for Scots union jobs
By FWi staff
THREE candidates will fight it out for the two vice president posts in the National Farmers Union of Scotland elections.
Ayrshire dairy farmer Ian Kerr; John Kinnaird, who runs mixed farms in Lothian; and Dunfermline arable grower Peter Stewart have been nominated to stand.
Mr Kinnaird and Mr Stewart are the current vice presidents.
Mr Kerr, 47, milks 160 cows and farms 800 acres in a family partnership at Newmilns. He also runs beef cattle and 320 cross ewes.
He served for five years on the milk committee before being elected chairman in March 1999, and currently represents the union on the National Dairy Council.
Mr Kinnaird, 50, has two farms totalling 629 acres producing cereals, grass, sucklers and progeny from 650 ewes, all finished on-farm.
The former Lothians president served on the employment and technology committee from 1994.
He was chairman of the legal and technical committee until March 2000, when he was then elected as vice president.
Mr Stewart, 50, farms 600 acres at Dunfermline, mostly arable with 50 acres of potatoes, and was president of the unions Fife and Kinross area,
A member of the cereals committee for 10 years, he has served on the board of the Home-Grown Cereals Authority.
He has served as vice president since 1999 and is director of the Tayforth Marketing Group, a local co-op marketing grain direct to end users.
The election for president of the NFU of Scotland is not due until 2002, when Jim Walker completes his current two-year term of office.
The election of vice presidents, with a one-year term of office, takes place in the Hilton Dunblane Hydro on 9 March.